Forza Horizon 4 has done the following in support of Gaming for Everyone (inclusivity and accessibility).
Options and Settings
- Language Select allows you to choose which language you would prefer the game to use regardless of your system’s current region or language setting on Windows 10 or Xbox One.
- Difficulty and driving assists the Forza series is known for, so that the game can be as easy or as challenging as you want it to be.
- New camera FOV setting options (on PC version) may help some with certain cognitive issues, but was mainly added in response to PC player preferences. (PC only for now, but pushing to include on console as well).
- Settings for visual accessibility have been added which change the color of some game map icons and UI: Protanopia, Deuteranopia, Tritanopia, and High Contrast. The suggesting driving line color does not change based on these settings – it changed from green to blue in Forza Motorsport 5 to make it more visible to players with color blindness, and that is still how it is used in Horizon 4. The game’s UI, HUD, and menus were designed to be clearly visible and consistent to players with or without color blindness.
Controls and Input
- Full controller remapping functionality supported in the Windows 10 version of FH4 has now been extended to Xbox One in the Series 12 update. This enables players to customize controllers and wheel settings to their preference.
- Both Windows 10 and Xbox One versions now have the ability to copy the default control layout to a new custom profile as a starting point, so the entire profile doesn't need to be mapped from scratch. This option can be found in the Settings menu under Controller Settings. To create a new custom profile or modify an existing profile, navigate to the Custom Controller Profile tab.
- Up to five custom controller profiles can be saved.
- Subtitling in game for all pertinent dialogue in cinematics and gameplay (everything except radio DJ banter).
Subtitle Location – We have now moved our subtitles to the bottom centre of the screen, away from their original location on the left hand side.
Subtitle Font Size – Players can now adjust the font size of all subtitles from within the Video Settings menu
Subtitle Background Opacity – Players can now adjust the transparency of the subtitle background from within the Video Settings menu
Subtitle Option Preview – Players can now see an example of their subtitle settings by pressing the Options button from within the Video Settings menu
- New Quick Chat with D-pad enables everyone to communicate with others online with the press of the left D-PAD button.
- Full Multi-USB device support on PC. Play with any controller or device that has a USB output.
- Playground Games is partnering with Special Effect to help build devices to allow those with physical disabilities to enjoy games.
- When using a keyboard to navigate the UI, the Page Up and Page Down buttons allow you to change tabs.
Screen Reader Narration
Support for Speech-to-Text, Text-to-Speech for voice chat and Screen Reader.
- Follow these steps to enable Screen Reader narration for Xbox One:
- Press the Xbox Button to open the guide
- Navigate to Settings > Ease of Access > Game Transcription
- Set Let Games Read to Me to On
- Follow these steps to enable Screen Reader narration for a Windows 10 PC:
- Launch the Xbox Console Companion app. (Version 48.55.30001 or later.)
- Navigate to Settings > Scroll down to Game chat Transcription
- Set Let Games Read to Me to On
- All menus necessary for multiplayer and communications are narrated along with most of Forza Horizon 4, though not all menus are narrated. On some screens, the narrator will say "This menu is not narrated."
- Some menus do not cycle and repeat the list of options rather than "hard stops" requiring the user to scroll the opposite direction. The Garage and Autoshow are cycling menus. The pause, Horizon Festival, home, and festival playlist menus are "hard stop" menus and do not cycle.
- Players can use the PgUp/PgDown keys to change tabs/groups with the keyboard. These are not currently re-bindable.
Screen Reader Known Issues
- Some menu selections are not numbered when read aloud with Narrator. This issue will be fixed shortly.
- On the pause menu, some tabs and buttons are skipped when disabled in certain conditions (such as playing in solo mode, having restricted privacy settings, etc.)
- In the Garage and Autoshow UI, the default tabs are alphabetical by car manufacturer which can help low-vision players to not lose their place.
- In the settings menus, the detailed description of each setting is not narrated.
- Brand new players will erroneously hear the narrator say “A button select. B button back” when they first gain control of the Senna during the Initial Experience for the game.
- Quick Chat and ANNA phrases take longer to narrate than they're available to select in the UI. The following steps can be used as a workaround:
- On the D-Pad: Press down to open ANNA, or left to open Quick Chat
- Listen to the options and remember which one you want to use
- Press the same button on the D-Pad to open ANNA or Quick Chat again
- Immediately press the D-Pad button corresponding to your desired option
- When attempting to remap a Quick Chat phrase that's already bound to a different D-Pad button, the narrator will say the phrase “-is already mapped to inline underscore input” instead of “-is already mapped to D-Pad down/D-Pad Up/etc."
- There are two buttons where invisible formatting characters are incorrectly read out by the narrator.
- In the Autoshow, the Upgrade Heroes button is read as "Main upgrade sub heroes"
- In the Settings menu, the Head-to-Head toggle switch is read as "Head-to-Head thin enabled"